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1. Will not having a UG degree in accounting/finance and having a UG degree in a field completely unrelated to business prohibit me from getting work at a big 4?

2. Do big 4 hire directly out of law school? Would above median class rank give me good shot assuming I interview well?/ Fair to think they care more about your GPA in tax classes?

3. Do big 4 take interns during 2L summer?

Thank you.

Ex big4-er with a JD here.

1. Nope not at all, a bunch of JDs worked at my big4 who didnt have accounting degrees, but a lot either had something related or a bunch of tax courses to show that they had interest.2. You should have a solid chance, having great grades in your tax law classes helps too. 3. Yup.

I'll validate what my fellow anonymous poster said. I was a liberal arts major and just received a 2L summer internship at a Big 4 in their M&A tax group. I hadn't even completed a tax course when I got the offer (although I was enrolled in Federal Income Tax at the time). I come from a TTT (top 1/3) that is not heavily recruited from; though I did a lot of networking on my own.

Salaries, from what I have seen, vary wildly from city to city and even from group to group. For example, specialty groups like M&A and International are usually paid more than SALT, Fed. Core, etc. In NYC with an LLM you can start upwards of $130k, but in Omaha without an LLM you are probably looking more at around $65k.

As far as I know, there is hardly any travel. Audit travels quite a bit but the tax side not so much. Hope this helps.

To the anonymous from above: What group did you work in while at the Big 4 and where do you currently work (and doing what)?

Anonymous User wrote:I'll validate what my fellow anonymous poster said. I was a liberal arts major and just received a 2L summer internship at a Big 4 in their M&A tax group. I hadn't even completed a tax course when I got the offer (although I was enrolled in Federal Income Tax at the time). I come from a TTT (top 1/3) that is not heavily recruited from; though I did a lot of networking on my own.

Salaries, from what I have seen, vary wildly from city to city and even from group to group. For example, specialty groups like M&A and International are usually paid more than SALT, Fed. Core, etc. In NYC with an LLM you can start upwards of $130k, but in Omaha without an LLM you are probably looking more at around $65k.

As far as I know, there is hardly any travel. Audit travels quite a bit but the tax side not so much. Hope this helps.

To the anonymous from above: What group did you work in while at the Big 4 and where do you currently work (and doing what)?

Exit options included biglaw (rare), tax manager, tax counsel, or straight up left to another area of the law.

Salary really does vary wildly from group to group, and I was in one of the specialty groups (think SALT, transfer pricing, international). Salary depends on whether you have an llm, location, and group.

I left the tax field and quality of life has gone up with more free time. Big4 has a lot of hours, though not as much as biglaw, at least in my experience compared to my biglaw buddies.

This is anecdotal. I have a few friends from my school going to Big4 in the NYC office getting paid anywhere in between 120k to 150k, including sign-up bonuses. Granted, all of these people are getting their tax LLMs on top of their JDs (my school offers a dual-degree option). I also saw their offer letter so I can attest that these numbers are true.

Based on what I have heard from them, hours seem to vary widely through different groups. Some seem to literally just work 9 to 6, whereas others work solid 12+ hours everyday.

Honestly, although I'm fortunate to be going biglaw with market pay, if the work is 9 to 6 and you get paid 120k+, this doesn't seem like a bad gig at all.

Oh and to answer your question #1, I don't think any of my friends have a finance/accounting background.

1. Most of the people I know in a Big4 without an LLM have business/finance/accounting backgrounds. However, I know of people with computer science and political science backgrounds (although a lot rarer in bigger markets). If you're trying to get a job in NY, I think it would be a lot harder without a business/finance/accounting background because of the students you are competing against who will most likely have those backgrounds.

2/3.

Most of the people in my T20 that got Big4 were bottom half, but had numbers-related degrees/experience. They got the Summer jobs before any tax grades came out, so I doubt that the Big4 really cares.

Starting Salary, as everyone mentioned, varies drastically. I know that New York pays the highest (100+ for a JD at PwC). I think Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Dallas all pay around 80-85 for a JD.

I have a bit of an odd question but this thread seems like an appropriate place to ask. I am JD/licensed but have been working in tax. I'm a bit dissatisfied with my exact position at the moment and am looking to "weasel" my way in to M&A and corporate restructuring work. Problem being, without an extensive amount of experience it's a little difficult to really learn the field. I have downtime when I could be reading materials, but I don't really even know where to start. Does anyone know of any good resources that I can start with?